Facilities

The main facility is a mechanically cooled cryostat, capable of
stable operation at temperatures from below 3 K to room temperature.
Cooling is provided by a G-M (Gifford McMahon) cooler, and a sample
space of up to 40 cm high by 20 cm diameter is available. Optical access
is possible through four windows, and a cooling time as low as one hour
is possible (for small samples).

A helium-3 sorption cooler, with an operating temperature of around
300 mK, allows access to the ultra-low temperature range.

Other equipment at the UK Astronomy
Technology Centre in Edinburgh is also available. This includes
various liquid nitrogen, helium and mechanically cooled cryostats
operating at temperatures of 4 K and higher (sample space up to
1.5~m x 1.5~m), general equipment for
cryogenic operation such as leak detectors, and several clean rooms
for component assembly.

Other equipment
in Glasgow is available through TEOPS for activities such as
characterising the surface properties of materials.